Well that was....hot. lol. Too much heat for it but still decided to start prepping a hickory that I've been putting off. Good news is that the bark is falling off already, but the wood ain't yet punky due to being suspended. The borers shouldn't have any interest in it.
Had some puffballs down by the crick. I'm not a fan and gave a couple to some coworkers who enjoy eating them. Got back to work on the hickory blowdown. Pretty good yield. There is still a butt log that I have not gotten. Grabbed up the little sugar maple yesterday after cleaning some leaves off of roads. Did some grading on the sandbar to bring some material to the upstream side. (it's silver maple and it washed up this summer. I'm fine with it washing away this fall) Echo 501 got a mini spa day Friday. Still liking this saw very well.
The 501 is really the only saw I've been using this summer. I get to feeling guilty if I don't clean em up once in a while at least.
Quick anecdote I forgot from yesterday morning... Was at the equipment shed uncovering the tractor and buggy...hadn't gotten started yet. There was a Fox squirrel on the ground behind the shed when I pulled up. He ran up a poplar tree and made his way via branches onto a sugar maple next to the poplar. I continued on now ready to fuel and oil the saws. I hear a rustling noise up in the trees behind the shed. Look up just in time to see that big fat squirrel free falling about 60' out of the giant oak tree he'd made his way to. The <thud> was impressive for a squirrel. Sounded like someone had dropped a split of wood. Somehow he appeared uninjured and jumped back onto the big tree he'd just fallen out of. He landed about 3 feet to the right of the trunk. I bet that was embarrassing! lol
Seen in the shop at work last Thursday. Can't be too many of them left that haven't been straight gassed. I took Friday off to take advantage of the nice weather. Spent most of the day shining on the new truck and generally being lazy. Got the dock out on Saturday, did some touch up paint on my utility trailer and added some new conspicuity stickers. Also added dividers to the wood stand. Put up a tube feeder for the pair of does and their fawns that like to come down and watch me work at the lower yard. It only holds a single bag of corn, so we'll see how long it lasts. Got all this cut up yesterday before doing some painting on the hilltop pavillion. Been a while since I've cut any hickory that wasn't green. A buddy stopped down to get a small load of A-hole pieces for his Solo stove thingy. Time to fire up da splittah. (soon as this heat goes away) All work and no play makes RCBS a dull boy.
Decided to be active after work this evening. Needed to bust down some of the bigger rounds of hickory. Every bit of the bark peeled right off. Nice wood and already pretty dry. I mentioned putting out a feeder tube and got a couple pics. Rudimentary but works well. About five minutes or so. Others not so sure about me being parked in an odd spot. I'll chalk it up as a nice evening.
Some goodies I purchased with some funds I had in paypal. Had no idea there was such a thing as Sugihara Chain. 2 loops for evaluation. Made in Japan. Finally got me a lightweight 24. Still want a Tsumura with the white checkerboard though. Did some arts & crafts on Saturday before mowing. I wanted hand painted signs, but I don't know any good painters so.... Filled a couple of the sacks to see what they'll hold. I thought they'd be a little bigger but I can' really get more than 11-12 splits into one. Had a quick splitter party yesterday. Had to move a load of nice dry stuff out of my way first. It was a load I had saved for my buddy's mom. Delivered and stacked yesterday evening for her. No charge. Managed this little pile. (splitting rounds out of my way to extend stack run) Just a gorgeous day yesterday.
I've been wrestling with asking price. I had thought those bags would allow close to 2 cubic foot...I was wrong. lol If I were selling 12" sticks it would be possible. The 16s won't fit sideways so no way to take advantage of the extra bag material left over top. Will most likely put $5 on them. It more and better wood than you'd get at a gas station here, but most folks won't realize that. I am also trying to keep it easy to pay in Bill increments. I will have no option outside of cash for payment. I wanted to try to do some odd pricing...say $7 a bag and offer 2 for ten or whatever. I got .53 each in the sacks that I bought for trials. The stand has three bunks. Will start out just with the 16s bagged. Hope to add a bunk of short wood for the backyard burners. Third is slated to try to sell my uglies in loose pile form. $20 for a pretty good pile of mixed hardwood misfits. I got a cord of them I need to deal with. Also been thinking I might offer other seasonal fare from the stand. I had soooooo many Chanterelles last year. Could have put some nice puffballs in there this year. I'm not a big fungi eater, but I know many folks are.
I had considered trying the bags myself. buzz-saw had given me a few and I filled them with 2by lumber scraps and have for sale on FBM for solo stoves. No takers yet. I hated to see lumber scraps just go to waste in the dumpster with the guy I worked for part time plus from my own work. I use 12" stretch wrap for my bundles. PITA to precut it but it is what it is. 8x8x16 6-7 splits per.
Have considered bundling. Wondering if Jute might be better for me. What do you get for 6-7 splits over there? I know you do service storefronts/gas stations. I think some are up to $7 here for .75 or 1 cuft. Most have them at $6.
Getting a pile going now. Now have room to continue stacking. The hickory is not fighting me on the splitter. Was a little anxious that it'd be stringy since it's been dead a while. Found some nice chestnut oak rounds and a little red oak that was buried under there I forgot about. Had to throw several punky Hlocust rounds on the burn pile. Was trying to remember where the chestnut log came from. lol
Went and finished up the small rounds last night after work. There seems to be more wood there than what it looked like as my splits pile has grown large already and still a whole lotta meat left to toss onto the splitter. Next session will have to be stacking. Dang it. Had six deer come to visit the feeder. I no more than got the splitter and buggy back in the shed and shutdown and 3 trotted out. They musta been waiting for me to vamoose. Very civilised, they all took turns.
Finally got to delete a brush pile Friday evening. Called the FD and got the OK before. I need to drop another tree and don't have anywhere else convenient to put the material. Scraped the ash pile off on Saturday so the fires will burn a little better. Two buckets of ash and junk with the little tractor. Also got a few buckets of crick gravel and spread them on one of the drives. Then went and made some noodles so that I can make some vegan cupcake fire starters to give out over the holidays. Called it a little early so I could go visit a buddy. Knew I was gonna get rained out Sunday which stinks because I could have moved the mower, dropped that tree and picked up the used steel panels I found for a new shed build. Ended up turning it into a good day with a visit to the A.M.A. Museum. Pretty neat place. Not big, but fair amount of racing bikes on display. Quite a few obscure models, especially dirt bikes. 'Combat Wombat' caught my eye on this Hodaka. ATV Genesis. Stunt bike from Terminator 2. Doug Domokos' (wheelie king) XR400 with special modifications that I wasn't able to fully understand. You're not supposed to, but I touched all the Carmichael bikes there trying to get some of that good juju. lol Neat building and grounds. Can get through the whole thing in around an hour unless you stop to read every placcard. Road bikes, Moto GP, Dirt Track, Baja, Enduro, Motorcross, Speed Records and oddities all represented to some degree. Saw an older sleek looking bike in the speed section, looked at rear sprocket...4" diameter. LMAO Check placcard...201 mph. General shot of how things are laid out. The building and grounds itself is something to take in. Some architect in the early 80s had a lot of fun designing it, I'm sure.
CAD alert. My favorite dealer has 15% off of Echo products on Nov 30. Ugh. They do port work now I was told at the Bunyan show. Kinda wondering if they are interested in any trades? I don't have any redundancy in 60 or 70cc's at the moment.
